title: Does the 'Teddy Bear Hospital' enhance preschool children's knowledge? A pilot study with a pre/post-case control design in Germany.
abstract: The 'Teddy Bear Hospital' is a medical students' project, which has been increasingly established in many countries. To evaluate this concept, we examined the effects of a German Teddy Bear Hospital on children's knowledge relating to their body, health and disease. Using a quasi-experimental pre/post design, we examined 131 preschool children from 14 German kindergartens with pictorial interview-based scales. The analysis of covariance revealed that the children who visited the Teddy Bear Hospital had a significantly better knowledge concerning their body, health and disease than the children from the control group. This German Teddy Bear Hospital is a good health education vehicle for preschool children.
authors.affiliation: Philipps University of Marburg, Germany leonhar3@staff.uni-marburg.de.
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leonhardt
authors.affiliation: Philipps University of Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Margraf-Stiksrud
authors.affiliation: Philipps University of Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Badners
authors.affiliation: Philipps University of Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Szerencsi
authors.affiliation: Philipps University of Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Rolf F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Maier
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects
keywords: Germany; health education; health promotion; preschool child; ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’